JEDP: Sources in the Pentateuch

Dennis Bratcher

The letters JEDP are a designation
used by scholars to identify the component parts or
sources
that they understand were used to compile the first five books of the Old
Testament. There have been various opinions as to whether these sources were
written or oral traditions, and whether each source represents an
independent strand or a stage in the development of an older source.

This particular way of studying the biblical text
in terms of sources used in its compilation is called source analysis
or very broadly literary analysis. Describing this approach as
literary analysis emphasizes that the object of study is the
biblical text itself (literature) to distinguish this method of study
from historical analysis that focuses on reconstructing history
apart from the biblical text (by the mid-twentieth century literary
analysis or “literary criticism” took on a more specialized meaning to
refer to the study of how words and language communicate ideas). There
is a long and interesting history of the development of this method of
biblical study that dates back to Jewish scholars in the eleventh
century AD (see Biblical Evidence beyond Doctrine: Dealing with the Content of Scripture).

Contrary to anti-scholarly rhetoric that is common
in some church traditions even today, there was never any intent in this
method to discredit any aspect of the Bible. That concern arose more as
a reaction against the challenge this investigation raised concerning
established ideas about Mosaic authorship that were deeply ingrained in
some church tradition. That traditional view that had achieved the
status of dogma in some circles, however, was not a conclusion arrived
at by investigation but by acceptance of still earlier tradition. It was
a view that was simply assumed apart from examining the evidence in the
biblical text itself. It was not until the Reformation and the
Enlightenment that systematic questions could be asked and investigated
in these areas (recall that Galileo tried that in the area of natural
science, and was quickly silenced by the church because it was too
disquieting to established views of truth!).

The goal of source analysis is simply to account
for the features of the biblical text that emerge when the text was
examined in terms of the linguistic, grammatical, and stylistic features
that are common to human writing. That detailed study of the biblical
text itself apart from the dogma and traditional interpretation that had
been in place for centuries led to the conclusion that the material of
the Pentateuch is composite, written by different people or different
communities over a long period of time.

There were excesses in this endeavor, however. For the first time in the
church, Scripture could be investigated apart from the authority of the
church in telling people what they must believe and what the text meant.
Unfortunately, that led to some people focusing more on the process of
investigation than what they were investigating.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, some scholars were so enamored with
this method of biblical study that the number of posited sources for the
Pentateuch greatly multiplied. Scholars also grew increasingly confident in
their ability to identify these sources, sometimes as many as three in a
single verse. This excessive zeal to dissect the biblical text into
component parts led to a backlash against such methods from some circles.
That reaction itself became overly zealous in the other direction, and, when
combined with emerging Fundamentalism in the 1920s, resulted in the
anti-scholarly rhetoric and biases toward biblical study that still echo in
the church today.

Biblical scholarship soon recognized the excesses,
since all such scholarship must be done in a larger community that tends
to “reign in” extreme views. The result was a gradual modification of
the perspectives of source analysis, both in terms of the number of
identifiable sources and the confidence in being able to identify them.
Also there arose a steady recovery of a focus on the whole of the
biblical text rather than a preoccupation of only its component parts.

Today, some have declared “source criticism” dead as a specific biblical
study tool. However, even though methods of biblical study have moved far
beyond such minute dissection of the text, the insight that the Pentateuch
is composite and “grew” over a long period of time has been a lasting
contribution of this method of study. While the early formulations of JEDP
may not be widely accepted today among many biblical scholars, there is
little question that the Pentateuch, and the larger biblical text, is
composed of diverse strands of tradition compiled over the course of many
years . This is in line with what New Testament scholars understand
about the growth of the Gospel traditions as well, witnessed by the fact
that we still have four “sources” of those traditions in the four Gospels
(see The Synoptic Problem).
So, it would be helpful for students of Scripture to understand the approach
of source criticism in order to gain a better appreciation not only of the
biblical text, but of the development of modern biblical studies.

Originally, JEDP referred to what scholars had
identified as the four main sources of the Pentateuch. There were
various perspectives as to the details, but this was generally called
the "documentary hypothesis" of biblical origins (sources = documents).
This referred to the conclusion that the Pentateuch as we have it had
been composed or complied from a variety of previously existing
documents or sources. The letters were simply the abbreviations for
those earlier documents or sources. Later source analysis of both the
Pentateuch and the Gospels allowed for the possibility that some sources
were not written documents but arose from oral traditions.

The earliest strands of the biblical traditions,
dating perhaps in written form to the time of the Davidic monarchy (1000
BC), were given the designations J and E. The designation
J was given to material that primarily used the proper name for
God (YHWH, we are not sure how it was pronounced; German scholars
developed the method and used the letter J since that is the
German equivalent of “Y” in Hebrew). It was posited that this material
was written or preserved in the Southern Kingdom of Judah after
the division of the Kingdom in 922 BC, and perhaps as late as the eighth
century BC. It contained the traditions of the Davidic monarchy and the
establishment of Jerusalem as the center of worship, as well as
recounting the story of the emergence of Israel as a people under God’s
guidance. While there is some legal material in these sources, most of
it is epic narrative, traditional recounting of the origins of a
people and their journey through history.

E was similar material that used the generic
term for deity (elohim) in referring to God. It originated in the
Northern Kingdom of Israel, perhaps earlier than J before the
establishment of the monarchy, although most placed it around the eighth
century BC. Rather than material about the Davidic monarchy, E contained
the tribal traditions of the conquest of the land and the traditions
about the covenant and the worship centers outside Jerusalem.

D was the designation given to
deuteronomic material. This was understood to be instructional or
preaching material that used language, concepts, and theological
perspectives very similar to that found in the Book of Deuteronomy as
well as some of the prophets (e.g., Jeremiah). It focused on
faithfulness to God using the covenant traditions as a basis, and was
concerned with obedience as proper response to God’s grace. It also
included much of the legal material that revolved around obedience to
God as faithfulness to the Torah.

There was always debate about the exact time frame of this material, but
it was generally agreed that there were two distinct phases in the editing
or "redaction" of D material. Some saw it as living tradition that was
constantly reapplied within the community. It contained traditions from
Moses, but scholars thought that an early form of Deuteronomy was in place
as a written document during the reign of
Josiah
(c. 621 BC), which he used as a basis for his reforms. A later version of
this material was reedited after the exile to apply the theology of Mosaic
traditions to the crisis of the exile. The perspective of D was also thought
to have influenced some of the historical traditions in Samuel-Kings and
some of the prophetic traditions, especially that of Jeremiah.

The P material was understood to be priestly
material, and focused on the concerns of priests serving in the Jerusalem
temple. This would include technical record keeping and legal traditions
related to the proper functioning of the Temple and its associated
activities. It included material such as detailed regulations about how to
observe festivals, the counting of days, the ordering of events into
sequence, genealogies and statistics, as well as reflective theological
material that related to the keeping of religious law.

Like D, or Deuteronomic material, this priestly
material was understood to contain traditions from all periods of
Israel’s history. But the final shaping of the P traditions is
considered late in the development of the final form of the Pentateuch,
since the priests emerged as the leaders and wielders of power only
after the return from exile (after 538 BC). Therefore, most of the
priestly material, in the form we have it now, is usually understood as
post-exilic in the fifth century BC or later.

There was always debate whether there was ever an independent P
document, or whether this material was simply a rewriting of other
traditional material from the perspective of priestly concerns (such as the
second creation account of Genesis 1). This re-writing of older material
is called "redaction" (editing) and this led to ongoing discussion whether
the "redactor" is simply a compiler of other material or is a creative
author. This same discussion relates to the Gospels as well, where it is
more obvious that common material from traditional sources is being used,
but yet is given unique theological slants by each of the four authors.

Today, while there are still challenges from some to the idea of sources
in the Pentateuch, it is generally accepted even by very conservative
scholars. However, there have been significant modifications from 100 years
ago and the whole scenario of "source criticism" has been vastly simplified.
Rather than "sources" as specific written documents many scholars now talk
about traditions, emphasizing that
Scripture grew out of the ongoing life of a worshipping community rather
than simply being composed by a single individual at one time and then
merely edited. This has shifted an emphasis from the "authors" of Scripture
to its function within the community.

The sources or pre-canonical traditions of the Old Testament are now
generally simplified into three. The material of J and E has now been
combined into what is generally termed the JE epic
narratives. This is an acknowledgement on the one hand that it is
mere speculation to try to subdivide the text any further, and on the other
hand that this material remains distinctive from other Pentateuchal
material.

Scholars have continued to acknowledge the complexity of the deuteronomic traditions
within the history of the biblical communities. The debates concerning
this material have centered largely on the various editions through
which the D material passed, whether D was ever actual
documents or more a theological point of view from which other
traditions were evaluated, and the influence of the D perspective
on the compilation of other traditions within the Old Testament (see
History and Theology in Joshua and Judges).

The priestly traditions are also now
seen as much more complex than a simple P designation allows. Although
the final composition is still placed in the post-exilic era, most scholars
now consider the P traditions to contain significant amounts of much older
material. At the least, that suggests that it is no longer adequate to deal
with all priestly material as if it were a creation of the post-exilic
priestly hierarchy.

All this suggests that there is still validity in understanding a
diversity of material in the Pentateuch that arose from different time
periods with different emphases, much as we understand the diverse Gospel
material of the New Testament (see The
Synoptic Problem). Of course, this would preclude Mosaic authorship of
the Pentateuch as we have it now, although it would not deny that some
material may have come from Moses.

This understanding of a dynamic to the biblical text over a
considerable time period has allowed us to view the text in different
ways than in the “absolute law” categories that has been common
in the Church.
Examination of individual texts with sensitivity to their location
within various traditions has led us to an awareness that there are
obvious differences in various strata of Pentateuchal material.
For example, there is a marked difference in the development of
religious laws within the various traditions. The JE material allows
worship of Yahweh at various outlying shrines (Shiloh, Bethel, Gilgal,
Shechem) while the D material is insistent that sacrifices are only to
be allowed at Jerusalem.

Likewise, even within these traditions there is evidence of a dynamic at work
within the community, as seen for example, in the various systems of tithing
in Deuteronomy that traces the development from a primarily agrarian economy
to an urban one. Yet, most scholars now emphasize more the whole of the
canonical material and affirm that study of the component parts are not as
important as how the material has been "shaped" in the formation of the
canonical books that exist now. That means that source analysis is simply
another tool in understanding the biblical texts.

This shift to canonical and theological concerns
leads to new questions in relation to the sources. The primary questions
are no longer, “What is the origin of this source?” or “When in Israel’s
history was this material originally written” (which are historical
questions). Now, the primary questions in relation to the sources focus
on theological questions such as, “How did the author/redactor use this
material to make his point?” or “What ideas about God does this
particular arrangement of the material confess?”

An exemplary text to see how the JE, D,
and P traditions can be observed in a single passage is Exodus
12-13, the Passover narrative. The traditions are usually understood to
break down in this way:

JE epic narrative: The story line of the exodus
in the narrative material runs through chapter 11 with Moses as the
main character (11:10 is a transition verse).

11:1 The LORD said to Moses,
"I will bring one more plague upon Pharaoh and upon Egypt; afterwards he
will let you go from here; indeed, when he lets you go, he will drive you
away. . . .11:9 The LORD said to Moses, "Pharaoh will not listen to you, in
order that my wonders may be multiplied in the land of Egypt."

Priestly: the narrative is interrupted at
12:1-20 with priestly instructions from both Moses and Aaron, who is
the paradigm for OT priests, about the proper time and manner to observe
Passover. This includes keeping the Passover lamb shut up for three days and
outlining a seven day festival (recall in the narrative, the Israelites had
to leave hastily in the course of a single night, not even having time to
allow the bread to rise).

1 The LORD said to Moses and
Aaron in Egypt, 2 "This month is to be for you the first month,
the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on
the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one
for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they
must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the
number of people there are. You are to determine the amount of lamb needed
in accordance with what each person will eat. 5 The animals you choose must
be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or
the goats. 6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when
all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7
Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of
the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night
they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and
bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but
roast it over the fire-- head, legs and inner parts. 10 Do not leave any of
it till morning; if some is left till morning, you must burn it. 11 This is
how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals
on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's
Passover. 12 "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down
every firstborn-- both men and animals-- and I will bring judgment on all
the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the
houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No
destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt. 14 "This is a day you
are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a
festival to the LORD-- a lasting ordinance. 15 For seven days you are to eat
bread made without yeast. On the first day remove the yeast from your
houses, for whoever eats anything with yeast in it from the first day
through the seventh must be cut off from Israel. 16 On the first day hold a
sacred assembly, and another one on the seventh day. Do no work at all on
these days, except to prepare food for everyone to eat-- that is all you may
do. 17 "Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very
day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt. Celebrate this day as a
lasting ordinance for the generations to come. 18 In the first month you are
to eat bread made without yeast, from the evening of the fourteenth day
until the evening of the twenty-first day. 19 For seven days no yeast is to
be found in your houses. And whoever eats anything with yeast in it must be
cut off from the community of Israel, whether he is an alien or native-born.
20 Eat nothing made with yeast. Wherever you live, you must eat unleavened
bread."

JE: the story line is picked up again in
12:21-39, with instructions from Moses alone, repeating some
instructions, and emphasizing, not the correct observance, but the
significance of the actions and their memorial.

21 Then Moses summoned
all the elders of Israel and said to them, "Go at once and select the
animals for your families and slaughter the Passover lamb. 22 Take a bunch
of hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on
the top and on both sides of the doorframe. Not one of you shall go out the
door of his house until morning. 23 When the LORD goes through the land to
strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the
doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the
destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down. 24 "Obey these
instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants. 25 When
you enter the land that the LORD will give you as he promised, observe this
ceremony. 26 And when your children ask you, `What does this ceremony mean
to you?' 27 then tell them, `It is the Passover sacrifice to the LORD, who
passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt and spared our homes when
he struck down the Egyptians.'" Then the people bowed down and worshiped. 28
The Israelites did just what the LORD commanded Moses and Aaron. 29 At
midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn
of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was
in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. 30 Pharaoh
and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and
there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone
dead. 31 During the night Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, "Up!
Leave my people, you and the Israelites! Go, worship the LORD as you have
requested. 32 Take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go. And also
bless me." 33 The Egyptians urged the people to hurry and leave the country.
"For otherwise," they said, "we will all die!" 34 So the people took their
dough before the yeast was added, and carried it on their shoulders in
kneading troughs wrapped in clothing. 35 The Israelites did as Moses
instructed and asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold and for
clothing. 36 The LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the
people, and they gave them what they asked for; so they plundered the
Egyptians. 37 The Israelites journeyed from Rameses to Succoth. There were
about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides women and children. 38 Many
other people went up with them, as well as large droves of livestock, both
flocks and herds. 39 With the dough they had brought from Egypt, they baked
cakes of unleavened bread. The dough was without yeast because they had been
driven out of Egypt and did not have time to prepare food for themselves.

P: the priestly tradition again interrupts
the narrative in 12:40-51, again with both Moses and Aaron the
authority, and gives further specific directions for the proper observance
of Passover. There is some tension with the immediately preceding section
where it states that a "mixed crowd" went up from Egypt, and the priestly
regulations that no "foreigner" may eat of Passover (the Israelites
were the foreigners in Egypt; and they did not have slaves to worry about,
they were the slaves!).

40 Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in
Egypt was 430 years. 41 At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all
the LORD's divisions left Egypt. 42 Because the LORD kept vigil that night
to bring them out of Egypt, on this night all the Israelites are to keep
vigil to honor the LORD for the generations to come. 43 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, "These are the regulations for
the Passover: "No foreigner is to eat of it. 44 Any slave you have bought
may eat of it after you have circumcised him, 45 but a temporary resident
and a hired worker may not eat of it. 46 "It must be eaten inside one house;
take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones. 47
The whole community of Israel must celebrate it. 48 "An alien living among
you who wants to celebrate the LORD's Passover must have all the males in
his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land.
No uncircumcised male may eat of it. 49 The same law applies to the
native-born and to the alien living among you." 50 All the Israelites did
just what the LORD had commanded Moses and Aaron. 51 And on that very day
the LORD brought the Israelites out of Egypt by their divisions.

Deuteronomic: The consecration of the
firstborn in 13:1-16 is an example of D reflective theology, repeating much
of the material from chapter 12, but from the perspective of faithful
observance of the Torah as a response to God’s grace in the exodus with the
entire community as the focus. The language and phrasing here is very
similar to corresponding passages in Deuteronomy. There is again emphasis on
teaching the children, but with much more emphasis on the symbols as ways to
recall God’s actions. There is also theological reflection on the events
themselves and the proper response to them in light of relationship with
God, and the grace the community has experienced.

1 The LORD said to Moses, 2 "Consecrate to me every
firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites
belongs to me, whether man or animal." 3 Then Moses said to the people,
"Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of
slavery, because the LORD brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat
nothing containing yeast. 4 Today, in the month of Abib, you are leaving. 5
When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites,
Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites-- the land he swore to your forefathers to
give you, a land flowing with milk and honey-- you are to observe this
ceremony in this month: 6 For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on
the seventh day hold a festival to the LORD. 7 Eat unleavened bread during
those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor
shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders. 8 On that day tell
your son, `I do this because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of
Egypt.' 9 This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a
reminder on your forehead that the law of the LORD is to be on your lips.
For the LORD brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. 10 You must keep
this ordinance at the appointed time year after year. 11 "After the LORD
brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as he
promised on oath to you and your forefathers, 12 you are to give over to the
LORD the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your
livestock belong to the LORD. 13 Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey,
but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among
your sons. 14 "In days to come, when your son asks you, `What does this
mean?' say to him, `With a mighty hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, out
of the land of slavery. 15 When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the
LORD killed every firstborn in Egypt, both man and animal. This is why I
sacrifice to the LORD the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each
of my firstborn sons.' 16 And it will be like a sign on your hand and a
symbol on your forehead that the LORD brought us out of Egypt with his
mighty hand."

JE: the narrative story line is picked up
again in 13:17-22 and the following chapter with the leadership of Moses
at the center.

17 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them
by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said,
"Lest the people repent when they see war, and return to Egypt." 18 But God
led the people round by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And
the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.
19 And Moses took the bones of Joseph
with him; for Joseph had solemnly sworn the people of Israel, saying, "God
will visit you; then you must carry my bones with you from here." 20 And
they moved on from Succoth, and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the
wilderness. 21 And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to
lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them
light, that they might travel by day and by night; 22 the pillar of cloud by
day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

This illustrates that even in what seems like a single unified passage,
there may be more than one voice speaking with more than one point of
concern and emphasis. This does not lessen the credibility of Scripture in
any way, unless, of course, that credibility is tied to traditional
affirmations about who wrote what. Yet, we simply do not have enough
information to determine that, and the evidence points in a different
direction.

Understanding the dynamic nature of the biblical text allows us to see
the work of God as dynamic in this community of faith as they worked
throughout history to come to terms with God’s revelation of himself and put
that into practice in their lives. That is still the task we face today, and
this understanding of the dynamic aspect of Scripture may allow it to be
more relevant in our own lives today.